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THE SUN. SUNDAY, JUNE 1, . 1919. Thorns and Roses in Queer Letters That Flood Authors' Mail One Writer's Own Impassioned Epistle Indicted in Courtship Days, Sur passes Any Written by Ec centric Correspondents "Uncle Tom's Cabin" Ranks First Among American Books in Stirring- Up Tempest, Bringing Both Praise and Abuse 10 Br ARTHUR AT once a penalty and a prlvilego of successful authorship is the variety and eccentricity of the mall that the postman brings. The letters written by strangers to the man conspicuous In other lines of activity have reference merely to his otto per sonality, or his own actions or utter ances; those directed to the author who has won popularity Involve also the personalities and actions and ut terances of his characters. At times an excuse for writing has been found before the first paragraph of actual text. The original dedication of Gen. Lew Wallace's "Ben Hur" read, "To the Wife of My Youth." It was widely In- ' terpreted as a reference to one who had passed away, and the Interpreta tion resulted In such a deluge of letters of sympathy, some of them thinly veil ing half proposals of marriage from T.'omen matrimonially disposed, that In later editions of the book Oen. Wallace found It expedient to change the dedi cation to read, "To the Wife of My Youth, Who Still Abides with Me." Tempest Over 'Uncle Tom'i Cabin.' Although written In a day when let ters were less frequent, though of gi cater Individual length, probably no book of American origin ever brought Its author such a flood of correspon dence as "Uncle Tom's Cabin." All the fire of tho South welled up In the epistles of denunciation from those of slavo holding proclivities directed at the little" New England woman. The tono of these letters was balanced by the volumo of laudatory correspon dence from high strung .Abolitionists. Every character In the book. Uncle Tom, Topsy, Little Eva, and above all Simon Legrce, was furiously extolled or abused, according to the convic tions or prejudices of the writer. Not his expressed opinions on the slavery question, though on that sub ject ho held Ideas as radical as those of Harriet Beecher Stowe herself, but his public utterances on the matter of In ternational copyright, emptied a mall bag of letters at the door of Charles Dickens. These letters, for the most part anonymous, Informed tho Eng lishman in no uncertain terms that he "was no gentleman." that he was "a mere mercenary scoundrel," that his motives for visiting the United States were "of the basest nature." And all those communications, whether signed or not, ended by demanding on imme diate answer. "By every post," Dickens wrote back to England, "letters on letters arrive, all about nothing. This man Is of fended because I won't live In his house, and that man Is thoroughly dis gusted because I won't go out more than four times in an evening." Thackeray's "Thorn Letters." Thackeray, much us he liked the writing of' letters and delightfully as he wrote them, frequently squirmed In receiving them. There was a kind of n epistle which he called a "thorn letter," and these were in most cases f Irish origin, for though he married a wife half Irish and proclaimed a love lor the sister Island, "his humor was of a quality that the Irish could not al ways understand. There was one Ir.s'nmur. who was In tho habit of writing every little while promising an early call for tho purpose of soundly thrashing tho novelist. Then, when he wrote "Lovel. the Widower," Thack eray provoked correspondence lrke the . following: "8Ir: I have Just finished the first portion of your tale 'Lovel, the Wid ower, and am much surprised at the unwarrantable strictures you pass therein on the corps de ballet. "I have been for more than ten years connected with the theatrical profession, and I beg to assure you that the majority of the en, a kh.. are virtuous, well conducted girls, and consequently that snug ccttage ar j I! 'l I GEORGE BARR. MCCUTCHEON - ' .-R.HBHr lHHUuP" STEWART EDWARD WHITE- HHnnHnnnBnnnH MW"H bTbTbtb'Ub' B. MAURICE. not taken' Park. "I also have to Inform you that the atrical managers are in the habit ot speaking good English, possibly better English han authors. "You either know nothing of the subject In question or you assert a wilful falsehood. "I am happy to, say that the charac ters of the corps de ballet, as also those of actors and actresses, are supe-. rior to the snarllngs of dvqpeptlc libel lers or the spiteful attacks arid brutum fulmen of ephemeral authors." . Or: "Sir: I have Just read In the Corn hill Magazine for January the first portion of a tale written by you and entitled 'Lovel. the Widower.' "In the production in question you employ all your malicious spite (and you have great capabilities that way) In trying to degrade the character of the corps de "Collet. When you Imply that tho majority of ballet girls have villas taken for them In the Regent's Park I say you tell a deliberate false hood. "Having been brought up to tho Btage from Infancy and though now an actress, having been seven years principal dancer at the opera, I am competent to speak on the subject. I am only surprised that so vile a libeller as yourself should be allowed to preside at the Dramatic Fund dinner. I think It would be much better If you were to reform your own life Instead of telling lies of those who are Immeasurably your superiors. "Yours in supreme disgust," Whatever eccentric letters may have found their way to Bulwer-Lytton posterity Is Inclined to extend very little sympathy to the gifted author of "Tho Coxtons." For no letter that he ever received could have possibly been as' extraordinary as the following which he himself Indited In his court ship days:- "My Adored Poodle: Many, many thanks for oo darling letter. Me Is so happy, me Is wagging my tall and putting my ears down. Ms Is to meet oo to-morrow. O day of days! I' can not tell you how very, very happy you have made me. No my own love, don't come before twelve; but really I shall meet you! Oh, darling ot darlings! . . . Oh, zoo love of loves, me Is ready to leap out of my skin for Joy! Twenty million kisses. "And so they dressed my darling in white and black? O zoo darling) how like a poodle! And had oo oo's bootl tul ears curled nicely, and did oo not look too pretty, and did not all the puppy dogs run after oo and tell oo what a darling oo was. Ah, me sends oo nine million kisses to be distributed as follows: 600,000 for oo bootlful mouth, 250,000 to oo right eye, 250,000 to oo left eye, 1,000,000 to oo dear neck, and the rest to be equally divided be tween oo arms and hands. "Ten million more kisses, my own darling, for your letter which Is Just arrived. It is read, and now before It Is answered, take the following (marks of kisses). Pray, darling, shall we not kiss prettily to-morrow, darling? (d) (a) (r) (I) (1) (n) (g)? "Adieu, my own Rose, my life of life,, very poodle of very poodles, adieu! "Adieu, oo own Idolatrous puppy. "Ever my dearest, dearest, dearest, fondest, kindest, bootlfulest, darling est, angelest poodle. Oo own puppy." It -was a few years later that the lady so addressed wrote of the com poser of the foregoing document: "Upon his asking her with whom I was going to the christening at Mr. Fonblanque's that night, and I reply ing 'with Lady Stepney.' he then re peated as fast as he could, a dozen times running, 'My mother calls her that ugly old woman.' He then called out, ,'Do you hear me, madam?' 'Of course I hear you.' 'Then why the In don't you answer me?' 'I did not think It required an answer.' 'D soul, madam!' h exclaimed, for them In the Regent's bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbHbbbmIbbbbbbbbbbbbbI n 'BBMBHsTj-d HEAD OF BALZAC K.ODIN- seizing a carving Knife (for we were at dinner, and he had told the servants 10 leave mo room mi ne rang) ana rushing at me. cried, 'I'll havo you to know that whenever I do you the honor of addressing you, It requires an answer! I said, 'For God s sake, take care of what you ore about, Edward ! He then dropped the knife and, spring ing on. me, made his great teeth meet In my cheek, and the blood spurted over mo. The agony was so great that my screams brought ,the servants back; and presently Cresson, the cook, seized him by the collar, but he broke away from him and seizing one of the footmen's hats in the hall, Qishcd down Plcadilly." But to come down to a less Impas sioned age of authors' correspondence. I.eaTlnar the Flirt In Daabt. Perhaps the most extraordinary series of letters ever received by Booth Tarklngton was provoked by "The Flirt." Tho exact relations existing between the heroine of that story, Cora Madison, and Corliss were shrouded, so far as tho actual text went, in a certain doubt. No sooner had the book appeared than th author began receiving dally letters, all from women. Insisting curiously on further en lightenment. In every case Mr. Tark lngton discreetly replied that he knew no more, about the matter than did his correspondents. At one time Stewarl Edward White considered the most extraordinary de velopment of the letters received from 1 unknown writers to bo the number of doubles that a man possesses scat tered about the civilized globe. Once a letter In a feminine hand and with n English postmark rather startled tho author of 'The Blazed Trail." It read, in part: "I believe It must be you who sent me tho lines on a Christmas card. Only the other day I camo across the lines In the (ono of his books), and so now I know you are. I have often and often wanted to say something to you, and now I find you wrote It, part, of It, before I felt It, 'and long before I thought of It, for It took me some time to know what I did feel. Among other things they taught me that 'without love each kiss adds to the woman's ro gard for the man, but takes away from his desire for her.' And I -would like you to know that thero are some women whom Jt hurts forever most bitterly and makes them feel too cheap and nasty for words. Ono feels so mean to all the ordinary men who Have really cared for one. I never knew quite how it happened at that garden party." Neither did Mr. White, not having the slightest knowledge of the garden party In question, nor of the lady who so romantically wrote) about it. George Barr McCutcheon Is one pop ular author who has learned that trere are occasions when tho un known correspondent comes out best In the exchange of friendly hostilities. There was a cowboy living in Arizona, forty miles from a post office or book store, who delighted In the romance or the uraustarck novels. He learned y EDVCIN LEFEVRE the author's address from a Chicago travelling man who happened to bo In trat. part of the country and wrote a long letter in tho course of which he said that he was eager to read "Tho Sherrods," which had Just been pub lished. Ho had ridden forty miles, going and coming, twice a week for a month, but had been unable to secure the book at the nearest town. He was writing to ask If tho author would mall him a copy if ho would send on the price. Mr. McCutcheon, being in those days susceptible to flattery, sent him a copy with his compliments and told htm not to mind the price. A month later came the following: "I don't wonder you are happy to give it away. You don't expect people to buy it, do you? I'm much obliged to you for giving It to me for nothing but even at that I think there is some change coming to me." That hurt; .and Mr. McCutcheon .-o. sbWbWbw - i 1 t tibut .w a .r- jr -r "Sam" Vauclain's Career Continued from Fifth Pago. optimist who always Is chasing rain bows. "Any alarm over depression Is with out foundation," he averted. "Any business can readjust IV' within three months. Successful business men must always be prepared to meet new conditions. Thero Is no need to worry about the labor programme, If that problem la handled through the ear nest cooperation of employer and employee. The employee must under stand you. He must understand your business. He must bo In sympathy with your purposes, and there must be a mutual understanding If the In terests of both are to be best served." Nor has Mr. Vauclaln any qualm about Bolshevism In America. "There Is no need to worry about Bolshevism or any other ism," he declares. made the mistake of sending on a dollar and fifty cents in stamps and asking if that settlement made author and reader square. Tho cowboy re tilled that he could uso the stamiis to great advantage In warning h(s friends not to read the book. Mr. McCutcheon had no further retort. Many of the readers of Mr. Mc Cutcheon's novels formerly took It for granted that Graustark actually ex isted and many were the letters of In quiry about the money, language, cus toms and location of the principality. A woman In Cleveland requested direc tions for reaching tho place by rail after arriving In Europe. Her daughter was an Invalid and she was quite sura that the climate of Graustark would be bcnoflclal. Another woman wrote to sa that her husband was consump tive and that she felt that If they could rent or buy a house on the mountain side in Edelweiss his health No better trlbuto has been paid to tho genius of Sam Vauclaln succinct ly summarizing the thought of .those who know him intimately than this from William I. Schaffer, Attorney General of Pennsylvania and a closo friend of the locomotive builder. "When T see the great locomotives tear through the night," says Mr. Schaffer, "when I hear them shriek their songs, It seems to me they say: 'I am the spirit of Samuel Vauclaln!' The shells that soared over the enemy's trenches, dealing death, and destruc tion. Bang: 'I am the spirit of Samuel Vauclaln!' The hugb batteries that were his own creation thundered: We are the spirit of Samuel Vauclaln! It was this spirit which more, than any thing else won our struggle. It Is this spirit wo all honor with humility." And that's why they call him "Uncle Sam" Vauclaln. v w.J carolyn Wells might bo restored. One day a tele gram received by Mr. McCutcheon read as follows: "To decide a bet, what is the quickest way to get to Graus tark?" That telegram was from the East. Cincinnati went it ono better. There was found a cynic who com plained of the hour mentioned in Graustark for the departure of a cer tain passenger train. The author had missed the correct time by a full slxt) minutes and such carelessness spoiled the book for the travelled and dis criminating reader. San Francisco apparently outdid even Cincinnati, for' a woman from the uolden aate city wrote the author,: "I have a friend here who has trav elled oxtenslvely. She says she has been In Graustark twice, and loves It very much. Your description of the country is excellent she says. We expect to go abroad this fall, and I am writing to oak you how to reach Graustark. My friend Is In the East, and I cannot find the place on the map. She says she has seen the Princess Yetlve and gone through the castle." Once Mr. McCutcheon was routed out of bed late at night by the follow ing telegram: "Please send me your autograph at once by wire." Edwin Lefevre, the author of "Wall Street Stories," "The Golden Flood" und "Sampson Rock of Wall Street," confesses that the first letter that ho received as an author was one written by himself. It was address ed,ln cars of tho editor ot the afternoon paper for which ho was then working. The letter told how much the writer had enjoyed that "special on tho banana Industry. It was, the writer said, the best monograph extant on that Im portant subject. The editor, after reading, called Mr. Lefevro. "Here Is a highly encomiastic letter about your damned banana story." "Yes," replied Mr. Lefevre. "You see that" "Whom did you get to writ It?" pursued the editor coldly. "Nobody, but that would make c good story the young author who in a disguised hand sends letters to thi editor telling the great pleasure tht perusal " "You will continue to enlighten the readers of this paper," went on the editor, "as to the latest quotations on butter, eggs, cheese, petroleum, fer tilizers and pig iron, and everything else that will fit in the commercial page." A Reqaeat From Toled, But here is a genuine contribution to Mr. Lefevre's letter box, from To ledo, Ohio. "I havo read your Wall Street stories with much interest. Keep It up. Thero Is one story you ought to write about a man In this office that we call Willie tho Duke. Ho always brngs when he wins, but when he loses it is always the broker's fault He owes us some money, and we can't sue because everything is in his wife's name. He Is a lightweight and he Is ull of hot air. Ho therefore weighs seventeen pounds less than a tooth pick. Tou ought to write him up. Let us know In what number it ap pears." That letter was the first note In a one aided correspondence on tho aub Jeet that lasted more than a year. Tho writer evidently travolled for his firm, for Mr. Lefevre received letters on hotel stationery from various cities, every letter offering a' fresh sugges tion and Inquiring how the story was coming along and when and where It was likely to appear. Mr. Lefevre's first genuine letter fom a stranger was sent from a sum mer resort In Massachusetts. It rend: ''Will you pardon an Englishwoman sojourning In your country if she ven tures to request your autograph? She has rend your stories and has greatly enjoyed them." .The name signed was a very pretty cne. The author wrote back that she bad doubtless made a mistake, that she could not havo enjoyed the stories, because she was English and a woman. But that if she wished to do a good deed would she permit him to name the heroine of his next novel after her? Consent came at once: "I have read your Wall Street stories, all of them, and I've enjoyed them all. A friend explained some of the points, but not many, notwith standing my sex and nationality. As for using my name for your heroine, you are welcome to It. It will not be mine much longer. I am to be married next week." Tho first announcement of Herman Knickerbocker Vlele's "The last of the Knickerbockers" took the form of a visiting card, conventionally engraved, wnicn reaa: Mrs. Valentine Van Wandelser Miss Van Wandelser At Home. The Last of the Knickerbockers. The address riven was ihit nf n well known bookseller In TTninn Square, New York. Not a few of wnai since tne days of tho late Ward McAllister lias been known o, th "Four Hundred" solemnly and punc tiliously responded by enclosing their own cards in acknowledgement. Tho book brought other complica tions. Mr. Vlele had carefully chosen -up-State" names for his Knicker bockers, but that rllri tint nvil an onslaught from Manhattan Dutch men, -feter was my great grand father." wrote one. "ha married n Van X and not a Van der Y." Another sam: -Aunt Carolino Is now too old to set you right, but I have often heard her tell " An author who wishes n v,..- th. postman's whistle without lnnrart un easiness cannot be too careful in verifying apparently trivial statements in his manuscript. Mr. Vlele's "The Inn Of the Rllver Mnnn nni.u., ' i - ww.., wW.,MlwU song which tho author chose to call an om provincial ditty. He was unaware that there wcro people who collected old provincial ditties. These nm. in good faith and some In irony, wrote ucuiunuing mo original. They bogged the author to nrodune ttin mi, .in m. crown all he was Invited to a dinner of the New York chapter of the Fell- -res or rrovencc. "Which only shows." was Mr. Vlele's later com ment, "that It Is never safe to mon key with poetic buzzsaws." A stranger once wrntn in lyn Wells, outlining his preconceive. ti-wuu nr tier wontinir mathiuT., - o ,.,uuua, I Picture thus tho minn r.r jwui bt.iuo nay. iou wake. Ho,' you w Ill .... . " j iu a wrue mucn non sense. I will nit nt mv hi- ..i. ... - " "ion -tll'l Jingle a few lines Just enough to keep In practice. Then I will dash off a burlesque novel, a short story fur girls, a shorter story for boys, write, ui.-.o icuer- 10 members or the Mor mald Club, call 6n Mrs Prnn. has such a Movely kitten, brow'so at uuuii enops ana mnch at the club, Afterward I will call on 730,000 pub- Ushers and leavo each a few murtu scrlpts. By that tlmo I must run to tho matinee. Then I will havu tea with Oliver Hcrford and talk over the Illustrations for tho forthcoming ninety-four books, thon I will catch thi 5:22 ferry from the Twenty-third street station and go homo to Rail way.' From Oliver Hcrford Miss Wells onco received a drawing of a group of kittens accompanied by the words: "I send you a wreath of kittens. If I were a poet I would write a poem about how I walked ,ln the kitten Far den and found n kitten tree and gath ered all the kits to make this kitten wreath for thco." Later another drawing, showing what lie called a klttcnlere, was ac companied by: "Do you remember thu kitten wreath I rent you once'.' That was a great kitten year. Now tho trees are bare and only 0115 little kitten have I ban able to shako down for you. "I sent theo once a kitten wreath Now all the trees are bare. And I can scarcely find enough To make a kittenlere." A nebnke From Harvard. When Edward W. ToiTtsnd launched "Chimmio Fadden" upon the sceno of fiction ho unknowingly in vlted futuro correspondence of a trou blesome nature. The gorgeous slansr of the little Bowery boy created a widespread Impression that his cre ator must also have been Bower -derived, and led to complications when Mr. Townsend turned to fiction deal ing with other conditions of life Once, In a short story, he mado use of certain adventure, he hnd shored with a couple of Harvard men while travollmg In the Hawaiian Island". That provoked a letter of stein re buke from a Harvard undergraduate. That tho author should presume to speak of men and measures not of the Bowery made tho undergraduate sad; that he should attempt to tell what a Harvard man would do under any circumstanco was a piece of Im pertinence that could not bo encoun tered without Indignant protest. When he was a very young man Mr. Townsend reported for a news paper a law trial famous throughout the mining states anil territories, which revealed that a mine swindle had been perpetrated through the "salting" of a bag of ore samples by the Injection of a solution of gold The cautious expert, who had per sonally broken down tho samples of ore, had placed the bag containing them under his pillow at night, but the needle of the syringe had got there Just the same. Years later Mr. Town send used tho incident In a magazine story. From a stranger whose letter head proclaimed him a metallurgist and assayer he received a commun' cation informing him that such a de vice was a chemical Impossibility, anl warning him to avoid In futuro suoti technicalities. Of a whimsical nature was the let ter Mr. Townsend once received from a New York merchant asking If the copyright covering tho books pre vented the use of a menu ono of them contained. Assured thot tho menus of fiction were free to all he explained that he wanted to gvo a certain chef an order to duplicate a dlnnrr do scribed In "Days Like These, but that a painful experience he had with tho law prompted him to ask the author's preliminary consent. Probably never In the history ot au thorship has a writer's letter box been so full as that of Rudyard Klpllnir when he was lying desperately 111 ' the Hotel Grenoble In New York. From all over tho country, and indeed from all over the world, were those letters of generous sympathy. They touched Kipling deeply. Never aga.n wis h' to bo the somewhat acrimonious cor respondent of the early il.o " O"0 before a flippant strnngi'r ha- wr" ten; "I read that you are pn I at th rate of a shilling a word t r vour work. I ani eiiuloclng tm i.nlor for a (hilling. Please send a sample Kir ling did, His reply was "Thanks